We are witnessing ugly history in action as Democratic governors in Illinois, Oregon, and California are leading an open insurrection against the United States, which has not escaped the notice of President Trump, who just raised the possibility of using the Insurrection Act in response.
The case is crystal clear.
The latest example, though these are happening daily now, was in Chicago over the weekend when federal ICE officers, attempting to enforce federal law, were identified and located by violent leftist organizations using apps downloaded from Google and Apple.
The federal officers were then trapped by up to 10 cars. They called Chicago PD for backup, but when police arrived, they were ordered by supervisors to stand down because Illinois and Chicago are sanctuary locales — a situation that never, ever should have been allowed in the first place.
One of the drivers accused of ramming into the ICE officers was armed with a semi-automatic weapon, according to DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. Officers were trapped, "forced to deploy their weapons and fire defensive shots at an armed U.S. citizen," McLaughlin said. The armed woman, a U.S. citizen identified as Marimar Martinez, was named in a Customs and Border Patrol intelligence bulletin, accused of doxxing agents and making a call to arms against the officers.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is giving air support to all of this.
"They are the ones that are making it a war zone," Pritzker said. "They need to get out of Chicago if they're not going to focus on the worst of the worst, which is what the President said they were going to do. They need to get the heck out."
The reason the feds went in is because neither Pritzker nor the rogues' gallery of recent Chicago mayors are doing anything to defend vulnerable Chicagoans from horrible levels of violent crime, including by the infamous Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Instead, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is fighting federal law enforcement, signing an executive order to create "ICE Free Zones" to prevent federal agents from accessing city property.
Pritzker is just waddling in the footsteps of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, who both are fighting federal law enforcement in court, through executive actions, and in tacit support of the violence in the streets by blaming President Trump and ICE for daring to enforce federal laws.
In Portland over the weekend, protesters "assaulted federal law enforcement officers with rocks, bricks, pepper spray, and incendiary devices. They have damaged federal property, including by breaking office windows, security cameras, and card readers permitting entry to the building," attorneys representing the Trump administration told a local judge.
Portland federal facilities have been under siege by leftist rioters for a long time, while Democratic leadership has excused it. In June, rioters swarmed an ICE facility in an attempt to block law enforcement from coming and going. After a running fight, the rioters were dispersed with rubber bullets, tear gas, and flash bangs.
Any rational American, not drunk on the Kool-Aid of legacy media propaganda, cannot help but see this as an open insurrection against the federal government and democratically passed federal laws. These actions are organized by leftist groups funded through the well-established dark money of the left that so effectively burned cities in 2020.
This is the same playbook and players, but now also features Democratic governors, mayors, and council members, along with the use of apps from Google and Apple to locate ICE agents in the field and organize a rapid response.
Not to be forgotten is what this insurrection is supposedly about: Protecting illegal aliens, including criminal illegals. This has not been triggered by some high and lofty ideals, although the messaging is desperate to make it sound that way. This is a straight-up rebellion against the United States, led by the overwhelmingly democratically elected President, enforcing democratically enacted laws.
And it must be defeated. The Insurrection Act may be the only way.
Rod Thomson is a former daily newspaper reporter and columnist, Salem radio host and ABC TV commentator, and current Founder of The Thomson Group, a Florida-based political consulting firm. He has eight children and seven grandchildren and a rapacious hunger to fight for America for them. Follow him on Twitter at @Rod_Thomson. Email him at [email protected].
